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Standoff continues between Ripon campaigner and council

Tuesday, 1 October 2024 12:22

By Thomas Barrett, Local Democracy Reporter

Stanley Mackintosh outside his home in Ripon.

North Yorkshire Council is continuing to threaten to remove posters outside the home of a campaigner who is protesting against Ripon Cathedral’s £8m annexe plans.

But several months after the council first issued a notice that demanded they be taken down, the posters are still there.

Stanley Mackintosh, who owns the property on Kirkgate, argues he has a legal right to display them and is protected under freedom of speech.

The council says the posters constitute an advert and he does not have planning permission for them.

Since the posters were first put up, Mr Mackintosh claims there have been “numerous devious attempts” to remove them.

He lives a short walk from the cathedral and each day curious onlookers and tourists have stopped to look at them, which includes a cartoon depicting the Dean of Ripon holding a chainsaw.

The plans have been controversial in the city particularly due to the proposed felling of 11 trees that would make way for the new building.

North Yorkshire Council’s head of development management, Martin Grainger, said:

“The boarding outside the property at Kirkgate, Ripon, has not been removed as requested.

"We are now considering taking formal action to require the removal of the boarding which constitutes an advert.”

Mr Mackintosh said:

“None of the numerous devious attempts or threats to remove the public information display have had sustainable legal heft, so none have succeeded.

"As for the cathedral’s supposed justification for building a carbuncle annexe on our public park, that seems to be just magical thinking.”

North Yorkshire Council’s Skipton and Ripon planning committee is set to finally meet before the end of this year to make a decision on Ripon Cathedral’s plans.

It will come as a relief for many in the city as the plans have proved to be divisive.

This year, the Cathedral held several consultation events regarding the annexe after it paused its planning application in January.

It maintains the annexe is crucial to offer 21st-century facilities whilst safeguarding the future of its choir.

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